


The Inquisitor's Suite

by furev



Series: Snacks [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 08:37:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2575082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furev/pseuds/furev
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisitor and Vivienne have a serious discussion after one of their nights together in his suite of rooms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Inquisitor's Suite

**Author's Note:**

> Don't own any of the characters. Guts and Vivienne have been in a relationship for a while at this point. I've never seriously written fanfic before and haven't attempted it in like 4 years so hopefully this isn't painful. Okay that's it, enjoy.

The morning had started off uneasy. Though Vivienne had fallen asleep in his bed before, it had never been for a whole night. It didn't help that, when she’d woken up, he’d already left for a meeting with his new military adviser, Ser Cullen. He’d been undressing when he finally noticed her stir. Had he distracted her with his undressing? She considered this before realizing she was in fact seeing him in the light shining through the thick dark curtains of his bed chamber and not of the candles lining his fireplace mantle.

 

“Why didn't you wake me?” she questioned in a tone that she recognized immediately as sounding more husky and inviting than the tight one she’d intended to take with him.

 

He didn't respond immediately. Instead he kicked off his other favored boot,if he could favor any covering of his feet really, and undid the copper buckle of his belt with a practiced efficiency.

 

“No one knows where ya’ are. Well, that’s a lie, Leliana and Josephine most assuredly do. Varric probably does. You ken hide a thing from that Dwarf. I don’t think we’re much of a secret among my circle at this point.” He seemed to be talking more to himself the more he spoke. He padded into the adjoining room halfway through his answering her and returned with a platter of pomegranate flesh, flat bread, wild carrots, and what looked like some sort of mash in one hand and a decanter in the other.          

 

She knew he was avoiding giving her a real answer because he never rambled, and this was rambling in his case. He was the type to use words sparingly and carefully chosen. The offered platter was more enticing for the moment.

 

“Eat.” was all he said before laying the platter beside her on his portion of the canopied bed before retrieving a tall glass for each of them from the long built-in shelf beside the fireplace which he often used as a makeshift study, even though his suite of rooms included a small study in it’s number.

 

“The head woman in the kitchen said her daughter fancies herself a maker of wines and saw fit to gift me some. It’s not as fancy as anything you’re probably used to but I’d thought you might want to try it still.” He was making a point of not looking her in the eye now, even as he filled her glass and handed it to her.

 

She’d smelled the peaches the moment he’d taken the stopper from the decanter and took a moment to relish the sweetness of it’s scent before sipping from her glass. He watched her before taking a drag from his own glass. Vivienne watched as his long eyelashes fluttered as he tasted the very sweet wine. Guts wasn’t much for spirits, she knew, but he’d told her he enjoyed sugar wines best if he was indulging. The rolling of his throat as he drank warmed her but she told herself the wine’s sweetness must be to hide it’s potency.

 

“You have yet to answer me, Inquisitor.” she hid her smirk behind her glass as she had another sip. She knew it stung him when she called him by his title when they were alone.

 

“Vivienne.” he said in a low tone that almost sounded like a warning. Almost.

 

“You told me who knew I was here to your knowledge but I asked-”she began.

 

“I know what you asked Enchanter.”he almost snapped as he got up from the bed and walked over to the window. He was in profile as he leaned over the sill and sat his glass down. The muscle in his jaw was working, which meant he was either particularly worked up in the way he was whenever he shortened the foreplay between them or he was getting increasingly agitated/tense and didn’t want to lose his temper.

 

“Well then answer me.” she stated plainly, picking up the platter as she moved to sit in one of the plush chairs separated from the window by a short table. She sat it in front of her as she pulled her feet up onto the over sized chair and further into the sheet she’d wrapped herself in.

 

“Have I done something to make you believe I would do anything to hurt you or your reputation?” he asked quietly, still looking away from her.

 

“What does that have to do with you not waking me, Inquisitor?” she drawled as she allowed a perfectly shaped brow to arch even though he wasn't looking at her. If he was going to continue to ignore her she wasn't going to be pleasant with him.

 

“Vivienne-”he started.

 

“Why. didn’t. you. wake .me?” she asked in an icy clipped tone. The tone she used when she had reached the end of her patience and as a warning to whomever she was addressing that they were about to learn the reason they called her The Woman of Iron.

 

“I liked having you beside me.”,he rushed out.

 

“And?”she said more flippantly than she’d intended. She wouldn't correct it.

 

“I wanted to wake with you beside me.”, he continued as if he she hadn't been flippant.

 

“We’ve talked about this-”she started in an exasperated huff.

 

“I’m siding with the mages.” he let out in one breath.

 

“I know that they have your symp-”she started again.

 

“I’m meeting with an organized cell later on today. I’ve no intention of closing the rifts and then standing by and allowing The Chantry to gain back it’s hold.” he said in a rushed but even tone.

 

“Why are you saying this? Your position is not such a one that you have the authority to-”she began as her voice began to rise.

 

“Authority? **Authority**?! On whose authority do I march across these lands freeing these people of the rifts? On whose authority do you all follow me?! Do you think it’s the nobles that you and Josephine have so kindly provided me with? The one’s who stand to lose their extravagant possessions should these rifts remain open? The one’s who stand to lose their lives just the same as any commoner?! Do you really think I would be unable to do this if I had not been provided all these things? Do you think that because the Divine has okay-ed my company that I am beholden to her? That I am going be some Mabari guard dog at the foot of her throne? That I could not raise a force to do the work-to attempt to save us all, without the support of sniveling noble children?! It certainly was faster this way, but I owe no one my servitude no matter what Cassandra likes to tell herself.”, he ground out as he gripped the windowsill with one hand on his left and above his head on the right. The muscles in his back working as he stood just a few feet away from her, though there seemed to be a chasm between them now, without looking at her.

 

“You know very well what I mean. You’re not supposed to be focusing on that, you’re not supposed to be taking sides! What stake could you have in this? You’re not a mage and you don’t even believe in The Maker! I thought you wanted to restore balance. You know as well as I that I will shed no tears for the loss of the Chantry’s control but taking sides with the rebel leadership? There will be repercussions that could affect our mission! That could hinder us!”, she all but yelled at him. She tried to reign in her frustration with him but the conversation had taken a decidedly different turn than the one she’d expected.

 

“You think the large scale imprisonment and subjugation of mages and my kin is balanced?!” he was pacing now. His body ramrod straight and his gate tense. He still refused to meet her eyes.

 

“That’s not what I mean. That’s not what I said. It’s not so simple-”she began.

 

“Doing nothing is taking a side, da’vhenan. If you remember nothing of what I say from our time together then remember this. There is no neutral ground. You’re not naive, Vivienne. You know it well that outside of positions like yours, hell not even yours until you got put into it, that a mage’s life is one of servitude. That an elvahn’s life outisde the Dalish is one of servitude. In your circle even I am sure my cousins were treated poorly, even by the standards of the magically inclined.”, he gesticulating with his hands as his strides got wider and the speed of his speech increased.

 

“If we just stay on our path and complete our mission they’ll have to-”she began.

 

“You don’t believe that! You and I both know you are in service to yourself yes, that you are a survivalist yes, but that in your heart you want justice! You are more ambitious than what they think your very existence warrants for you. They would call you impudent, I’m sure they have, if not to your face. And that’s when you were the closest advisor to an Empress! I know you feel this way as well, I know it in my bones, that I am speaking to you about these things as you do to yourself. I see how you look at your fellow mage. I have seen how your eyes soften when I speak to you of my clan, of my family. What if you hadn’t ended up in the Circle when you did? What of your fellow mage? What of those children stolen from their kin? Of those forced into sterility because they despise your very state of being so? Would you have me bet their safety and their freedom on The Chantry hearing their complaints?”, he asked as he briefly met her eyes and she saw something she wasn’t sure she wanted to name in his eyes. He turned back to the window just as quickly as their meeting of gazes was brief.  

 

“I would not be arguing with you if I didn't want those things. If I did not feel those things. I ache for them. Every one of those who must live as I have and do still, for what we are, and for those like you whom we share an overlapping lot of suffering. I am telling you that knowing these thing and feeling as I may that taking a side before we have completed our task will do more harm than good! That we must bide our time! ” she nearly yelled, her frustration winning over her propriety for a  moment, as she didn't care for where this conversation was going.

 

"You are of Rivaini blood. I would think you would understand!"he rumbled with a sudden agitated burst of volume as he turned from the window.

"I never knew Rivain! What should that mean to me?! Why does that matter?!", she nearly growled at him as she snapped up out of the plush chair.

“My people are subjected. My people live in suffering. Sometimes right beside yours. I assume your openness to being with me is not some epiphany on your part?”,he asked in a half joking way that fell flat because of the tension that had taken hold between them as he stopped his pacing and took a step towards her.

“Guts.” she called as she looked at him with clear uncertainty.

“ I ask because history is important, your history is important in this, as is mine. The Dalish are not nomadic by choice nor by nature. We did not ask for our betrayal. After we gave our blood in service of shared cause we received chains in payment. Those in Rivain never truly accepted The Chantry’s Maker and still hold to their Old Ways.” he said as he reached out suddenly and carefully held either side of her face. She put a hand to his wrist and seemed conflicted about whether or not she wanted to remove his touch.

“The Circle doesn't have to be a part of the Chantry. It doesn't have to be a prison. It could be a choice!” she whispered in a deflated rushed while she searched his eyes. He either didn't care to hear her or felt what he was trying to say too important because he continued on as if she hadn't spoken.

“Do you know that if you’d been born in Rivain when they were not kept from their Old Ways you would be revered?! That you would be recognized for how amazing and powerful you are?! If my solidarity and decision to fight for a path with the Rebels in a shared vision of an existence outside from under the heel of The Chantry is hard for you to swallow than understand that it is you. Ma'arlath, Vivienne. Ma emma vhenan.* I make this choice because I do not believe in the hope that you have that after we have finished closing the tears in The Veil I will have the type of influence and power that would have The Divine listen to me about my people nor the magelings.” he murmured as he gazed at her with what she was sure now was a mixture of fear and love and desperation.

“Why are you saying all of this?” she murmured to him as she allowed her hand to move up his arm to cup his face.

“I’m giving you an out.”he rasped back at her.

“I’m not going to change my mind about this. I will not choose my own desires over the liberation of others. I-mmph”, her mouth muffled his yelp and silenced him. When she pulled away from him the fear hadn't left his eyes.

“I needed a moment. You do prattle when you’re nervous. I don’t know what I’m doing with you. I am conflicted. I have grown to care for you. To love you.” she said shakily, or as close to it as she could get, as she turned from his embrace.

“I won’t ask you to stay because of what’s between us. That’s why I’m saying this to you now.”,he hedged, even though his eyes still shown with the same desperation, when she looked back at him.

“I need time. I need to think. Preferably fully clothed.” she tried, and failed, to joke as she saw the hurt in his eyes even as he chuckled.

He was quiet as he picked up her clothes and handed them to her before leaving to the small study on the other side of his suite of rooms. 

**Author's Note:**

> ///  
> End I guess???? Haha, I don’t know what I’m doing. 
> 
> *//I love you, Vivienne. You are my heart.// Basically??? I’m not even remotely sure.


End file.
